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Leibowitz being and becoming a good university teacher

1.
BEING AND BECOMING A GOOD
UNIVERSITY TEACHER
OLKC Conference
Milan
10 – 11 April 2015

2.
Meta Questions
To what extent are theories mere ‘conceptual
frameworks’ that can answer different aspects of
social life or learning, and to what extent are they
genuinely incommensurable views that simply
cannot be used interchangeably? Does the choice
of framework not determine the kind of outcome or
implications for practice that the researcher will
generate? How do various theoretical perspectives
help illuminate an approach towards teaching and
learning that seeks to contribute to social justice in
and through education?

3.
More Meta Questions
Can one choose the framework on the basis of
the kind of data or questions, or is a conceptual
framework not something more basic to one’s
belief about the world and society, and about how
we should behave within it? Or are differing
theoretical positions, as some writers argue,
simplifications of reality, or possibly even just
differing metaphors of the social world?
(And does this line of questioning even matter?)

4.
Full team (2011-2013)
Rhodes University Chrissie Boughey, Lynn Quin, Jo Voster
University of the Western Cape Vivienne Bozalek, Wendy McMillan
Stellenbosch University Nicoline Herman, Jean Farmer
Susan van Schalkwyk, Julia Blitz
Cape University of Technology Chris Winberg, James Garraway
University of Cape Town Jeff Jawitz
Durban University of Technology Gita Mistry
University of Venda Clever Ndebele
University of Fort Hare Vuyisile Nkonki, Patricia Muhuro

8.
Conceptions of good teaching: Lecturers
focus on imparting knowledge
… we all work in our insular worlds and the teaching that I, I…the knowledge
that I impart to the students. I don’t know to what extent it equips them for the
world outside this space.
“What I like about teaching is that I want to tell people, those who do not know
what I know. I want to pass information”
“love” of teaching
interest in students as people
“And I guess I teach chemistry because I love chemistry not because I think the
teaching of chemistry alone is important. Although, I think it’s an amazing opportunity
to develop young people’s minds to give some a sense of direction. But it’s not just
about the subject matter, it’s really about developing character, developing the whole
person, helping people find where they fit in life”

9.
Conceptions of good teaching: Middle and
Senior Management
greater focus on university strategy
“Our success rate, our pass rates have actually been at a fairly good standard if
I may say so, which means … that approach was yielding some result”
management of staff capacity
I would like to see that all my HOD’s are on a Masters level, you know. All
HODs should be on that level at least because if they are on that level,
automatically their relationship with students is also different and that helps the
university”
broad vision
“I think my personal vision is to actually produce a graduate that can compete
anywhere. So for me (and for South Africa presently) I sincerely believe that we
have to insist on producing a graduate that can actually make a meaningful
contribution to the economy... “

10.
Findings according to lecturers
• Based on data in institutional reports on
lecturers’ perceptions
• Original data coded accorded to group
session and recoded by me according to only
enablements and constraints

11.
History, geography and resources
“High staff turnover both within the centre – it
is a struggle to get people to stay, although the
same could be said about the faculties, you
work with them in the department, come next
year, there are new people. At [our one rural
campus] we struggle to retain staff because the
town is not able to offer amenities, eg decent
shopping, decent school for the kids, the
university is not paying as much as other
universities.” (HDI5)

12.
Corroboration from questionnaire
“The chart shows that 70% (21) of respondents at
HDI5 had five or less years of experience teaching at
HDI5 although 7 of these respondents reported that
they had worked at other HEIs. HDI6 also had more
than the average respondents with less than five
years service 54.6% (24) at this institution, … At the
other end of the scale respondents from HAI1 had
the longest record of service with 94.5% (16) having
worked in the sector for over 30 years”.

13.
Leadership and administrative
processes
“Buy-in by senior management and HODs across certain
departments [is important] – new people arrive and
immediately there is a conversation they are slotted into,
encouraged to think about …” (HAI1).
“When we have a DVC academic who has a full
understanding, things go smoothly, but in instances
where we had a DVC academic who was not so sure,
things would not go as smoothly. Then the Director [of
the TLC] must explain and convince…” (HDI5).

14.
Beliefs about quality teaching and
professional development
They “lack [the] authority” (HAI1) to challenge
[having to attend training]. Across contexts,
reports identified teaching as undervalued by
many university teachers: there was a
“widespread belief that teaching does not
require support and complex sophisticated skills
to produce quality learning” (HAI1).

15.
The research-teaching relationship
“…under-qualified … still working on masters or
doctoral qualifications, so when they must do
the PGDHET [Post Graduate Diploma on Higher
Education and Training] or new course, they
can’t register [because they] are still busy with
masters or doctoral qualifications” (HDI5).

16.
Recognition and appraisal
“Institutional policies have enabled [the uptake
of professional development], e.g., the
promotions policy stipulates that nobody will be
promoted if they don’t have the assessor
training course. Academics started taking that
up … Also the university insisted that every
lecturer should have a teaching or professional
development portfolio, so consultations around
that have [occurred]” (HDI5).

17.
Significance of the material within
an ecology
...like the lecture venues that aren’t, you know,
that don’t support a projector, I’ve actually
done a workbook for students. I can actually
show you the workbook that I did last year and
so I give them lots of notes and stuff that they
can follow in class....[in the absence of a
microphone] I end up circling the lecture
venues, so that everybody can get to hear me at
some point in time. (ST-3)

18.
Individual properties: agency
“I often buy things out of my own pocket because
it’s quicker, it’s easier and it enables me to teach in
the way that I want to teach. I don’t begrudge that
money because it’s part of me developing the
students and I’m tired of asking for things” (UOT7)
“Look, it’s hard to say the environment is conducive,
but I think we have the attitude to make it
conducive, we look beyond the potholes” (UOT8)

19.
Role of workgroup and conducive
climate
“there’s a lot of backstabbing and real nasty
stuff going on but I have learned to cope with it
and I’ve learned how to distance myself from it,
so that whereas before it used to affect me
personally and I used to get very upset - not
because of the students but because of the
colleagues - I’ve moved into a position where I
am able to switch off. I don’t get involved in any
[academic development initiatives]. I don’t
associate, so it’s quite lonely” (UOT7)

21.
Why the move?
Some of the data lent itself to a more
practice based or socio-material approach:
“… theories of practice assume an ecological model
in which agency is distributed between humans and non-humans and
in which the relationality between the social world and materiality can
be subjected to inquiry” (Gherardi p. 76).
“… the context of a practice is not a simple container of it, but rather
is a resource for practical reasoning and acting” (Gherardi, p.28)
“rules are resources … metaphor of rock climbing, rules are the
handholds for the performance of practical activities, and they are
practical accomplishments in the course of their application”
(Gherardi, 133)

23.
Conclusion
• There are values in using different approaches together
• Perhaps Wenger’s suggestion that there should be a
dominant theory that forms the basis is useful
• But from an ethical or social justice point of view, it does
matter what view one adopts
• The basic theory does have an implication for research
methods
• Surely it is important that people across theoretical
perspectives can talk to each other?

24.
Papers associated with the project (thus far)
Leibowitz, B. and Bozalek, V. 2014. Access to higher education in South Africa: A social realist account. Widening
Participation and Lifelong Learning. 16 (1), pp 91 - 109. http://wpll-journal.metapress.com/link.asp?id=X7243U561274
Leibowitz, B., Ndebele, C. and Winberg, C. 2013. The role of academic identity in collaborative research. Studies in
Higher Education. DOI:10.1080/03075079.2013.801424 (3 June 2013)
Leibowitz, B., van Schalkwyk, S., Ruiters, J., Farmer, J. and Adendorff, H. (2012) “It’s been a wonderful life”: Accounts of
the interplay between structure and agency by “good” university teachers. Higher Education 63 353 – 365.
Jawitz, J., Williams, K., Pym, J. and Cox, G. 2013. Why we do what we do: Interrogating our academic staff development
practice 76. In: T. Tisani and M. Madiba (Eds) Proceedings of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of
Southern Africa (HELTASA) 2012 Conference.ISBN: 978-0-620-55540-1 Publication date: April 2013.
MacMillan, W. (on-line, HERD) ‘They have different information about what is going on’: Emotion in the transition to
university. CHER-2012-1069.R2
Ndebele, C., (2014). Deconstructing the Narratives of Educational Developers on the Enabling and Constraining
Conditions in Their Growth; Development and Roles as Educational Staff Development Facilitators at a South African
University. International Journal of Education Science, 6(1), pp.103–115.
Quinn, L. and Vorster, J. (2014). Isn’t it time to start thinking about ‘developing’ academic developers in a more
systematic way? International Journal for Academic Development. DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2013.879719
Ndebele, C. (2014). Approach towards the professional development of academics as espoused in institutional policy
documents at a South African university. J Soc Sci, 38(3): 255-269
Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Winberg, C. and van Schalkwyk, S. (2014) Institutional Context Matters: the professional
development of academics as teachers in South African Higher Education. Higher Education, DOI: 10.1007/s10734-014-
9777-2
Leibowitz, B. (2014) Conducive Environments for the Promotion of Quality Teaching in Higher Education in South Africa.
CRISTAL. 2 (1) 49-73 DOI: 10.14426/cristal.v2i1.27